On an average day, a person typically uses multiple computing devices. Often the person will move from one device to another, preferring one or the other based on a particular task the person is trying to complete, the location of the user (e.g., whether the user is at home or driving somewhere), or the experience the person is seeking. For example, the person might begin reading an email on their phone only to continue reading and responding to it on a desktop computer.
But transitioning from one device to another is not seamless and often can be cumbersome, requiring the person to move the context herself from one device to another and apply the context to the new device. For instance, in the above example, the person needs to (1) launch the email application on their desktop computer, (2) locate the email message she was reading on her phone, (3) open the message, and (4) find the paragraph of the email message where she left off. Only then can the user get back to completing the task at hand.